Anybody become manic on withdrawal of lithium??

[rowan77]

I had to quit lithium because my kidneys are damaged. I have been reducing the dose over the last month under the guidance of my pdoc and took my last dose of 200mg last night. My ddoc warned me that I could become manic as the lithium level drops very low and goes out of system altogether.

Has anybody become manic on the discontinuation of lithium? If so did it occur gradually or very quickly

I'm already having trouble sleeping and am not tired and a bit concerned that this is the start of mania, although I have no other symptoms. Maybe I am being paranoid!! It's just that my mood has been very stable for a long time now, so I am a bit worried.

Also  do you think that the introduction of valproate may help help prevent mania??

Edited September 30, 2016 by rowan77
Added in another question

[San]

I had nephrogenic diabetes inspidius and had to stop cold turkey.

I was immediately put on another mood stabilizer. I forget which one.

[rowan77]

9 hours ago, San said:

I had nephrogenic diabetes inspidius and had to stop cold turkey.

I was immediately put on another mood stabilizer. I forget which one.

I was immediately put on another mood stabiliser too. So hopefully no mania.

Did you experience any destabilisation at all when you came off lithium?

[morpheus]

The effective starting dose of valproate should be at least 750mg/d to start working as mood stabilizer/anti-manic. Therapeutic range 50-120 ug/ml. 

Two weeks ago i had a hypomanic episode, so pdoc raised dose to 1500mg/d after 2-3 days hypomania subsided, now I take my baseline dose 1000mg/d.

Edited October 1, 2016 by centaurus

[rowan77]

3 hours ago, centaurus said:

The effective starting dose of valproate should be at least 750mg/d to start working as mood stabilizer/anti-manic. Therapeutic range 50-120 ug/ml. 

Two weeks ago i had a hypomanic episode, so pdoc raised dose to 1500mg/d after 2-3 days hypomania subsided, now I take my baseline dose 1000mg/d.

My pdoc is planning to increase it to 1000mg over the next few weeks. He wants me to see the nephrologist first as i have stage 3 kidney disease, before raising it to that dose.

However I will see my pdoc this Wednesday so he may decide to increase the dose then depending on my mood. He told me to contact him or the community mental health nurse if i have any problems. I will see the nephrologist on 12th October 

[San]

12 hours ago, rowan77 said:

I was immediately put on another mood stabiliser too. So hopefully no mania.

Did you experience any destabilisation at all when you came off lithium?

A bit.. It was a pretty rough time for me, as well, so it could have been that, also.

[dancesintherain]

It (decreasing and then eliminating lithium) was one of the mentioned causes for this most recent hellish episode.  I was purportedly mixed when I arrived at the psych hospital, though I'll say that I felt more depressed/mixed and that if any mania existed, it was at least partially due to not being given anything other than 2mg of Ativan when I explained I was psychotic. I stand by that being what happened, but who knows.

 My lithium has since been bumped back up.  That didn't keep me out of the psych ward yet again, but I'm hoping the courses change moving forward.  I've...learned I guess from both crappy experiences.  The second wasn't as crappy as the first, but imfomitely longer.

sorry, I know going back up isn't in the cards, but I wasn't sure if knowing the trajectory would help.  

[crtclms]

Some people here who have stopped lithium cold turkey have had rebound mania. That's pretty much all I know about that. And a lot of people who quit lithium did not become manic in every.

I'm sorry about your kidneys. I have stage 2 kidney disease, but my creatinine hasn't become more elevated since I've been on lithium. So I am allowed to stay on it for now.

[Bipopular]

I switched from lithium to Depakote in May. I was taken off lithium in July and went very manic.on the Depakote I got very depressed and had every side effect in the book, nausea, tremor, hearing loss, hair loss. I went off a few weeks ago and all the symptoms are gradually coming back to normal. Responding well on low dose of Tegretol . I hated Depakote .

Bipopular

Edited November 17, 2016 by Bipopular
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